Medway: Public hearing on tobacco tonight

Monday

Jul 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Zachary ComeauDaily News Staff

MEDWAY - A public hearing today will help decide the future of tobacco products in Medway: what can be sold and who can buy them.

The Board of Health’s public hearing will center on whether the town should raise the legal age required to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 - a question voters approved at the ballot box in May by a vote of 479 to 252.

The ballot question was non-binding, so the regulation cannot take effect witout the board's approval.

The board and Health Agent Stephanie Bacon have said they didn’t want to make a decision without input from residents.

But the age restriction is not the only regulation change the board will consider, Bacon said.

In addition to the potential change in age requirement, the public hearing will also focus on other outdated regulations in town, some of which date back to 2000 and are not in line with the Smoke-Free Workplace law enacted in 2004.

For example, one such town regulation states that no person shall smoke or be permitted to smoke in a restaurant. However, state law prohibits smoking in all workplaces, including hotels and motels, where secondhand smoke is not currently regulated in Medway.

As well as banning smoking in hotels and motels, other proposed regulations pursuant to the state law include: banning cigar and hookah bars; placing 25 feet buffer zones around municipal buildings; banning smoking in town parks, playgrounds fields and beaches; banning smoking in outdoor areas of restaurants, bars and taverns, and bus and taxi waiting areas.

The proposed new regulations would also ban the use of e-cigarettes in those locations.

Following the referendum vote in May, Bacon said the ban on hookah bars represents not only a concern about smoke, but also health concerns, as germs can travel through the hoses on a hookah, regardless of the disposable mouthpieces used.

"It doesn’t matter if you change the mouthpiece," she said. "It doesn’t help all of the other diseases or viruses. It’s definitely not the cleanest thing."

Also proposed is banning the sale of e-cigarettes without a permit, blunt wraps, single-packaged cigars under $7.50, tobacco vending machines and non-residential roll-your-own machines, Bacon said.

The public hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Medway Public Library, 26 High St.

Zachary Comeau can be reached at 508-634-7556 and zcomeau@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZComeau_MDN.